More than 3,300 complaints of over-charging have been lodged with the Attorney General's Office since Hurricane Harvey struck the Texas Coast.

AUSTIN – Three businesses, including the Best Western Tropic Inn motel in Robstown, are accused of price-gouging during Hurricane Harvey in lawsuits filed Tuesday by the Texas Attorney General’s Office.

“It’s unconscionable that any business would take advantage of Texans at their most vulnerable — those who are displaced from their homes, have limited resources, and are in desperate need of fuel, shelter and the basic necessities of life,” Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement announcing the legal actions.

“Texas has tough price-gouging laws, and my office will continue to aggressively investigate and prosecute cases arising from Hurricane Harvey.”

Other companies named in the suits are Bain Brothers, which owns Texaco stations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and Encinal Fuel Stop, a Chevron station just outside of Laredo.

The motel, which is owned by Robstown Enterprises Inc., has since been dropped as a Best Western affiliate. It was included in the legal action after an Austin television crew aired a report showing the property had marked up its room rates more than two-and-a-half times after Harvey crashed the Gulf Coast north of Corpus Christi as a Category 4 hurricane.

Wes Rapaport, who reports for the NBC affiliate in Austin and more than a dozen other Texas stations, said he and a photojournalist booked rooms at the property on U.S. 77 several miles from the coast despite the $300-plus rate as Harvey approached late last month. The price online showed the starting rate for a room at $120.

When they were checking in, Rapaport asked the clerk why the mark-up was so high and was told that rooms were in high demand. The conversation was captured on videotape.

“It wasn’t my money, it was the (TV) station’s,” Rapaport said in an interview Tuesday. “But I just thought that if they were doing that to us, they were probably doing to regular people who were just trying to get away from the hurricane.”

Notified of the mark-up, a Best Western representative said the national chain advises individual properties during emergencies of laws prohibiting price-gouging and encourages them to exercise “compassion” at such times.